The selection of Pope Leo XIV — the former Cardinal Robert Prevost — as the first U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church has great potential to energize Catholics and non-Catholics as the new pontiff emerged with a message of building bridges and building on the foundation laid by his predecessor.

The late Pope Francis opened that door when, as a cardinal from Argentina, he became the first pope from Latin America, the global south and the Western Hemisphere. Now, Leo, 69, has busted that door off its hinges.

Yet from what we’re learning about Leo and from his brief initial words to the world, it doesn’t appear that his American heritage — while a historic first, largely unexpected and stunning — will define his papacy.

Rather, his first impression to the world is one of worldliness, of a person who left Chicago to do missionary work in Peru — sharing South American ties with Francis — and eventually became archbishop of Chiclayo in that country.

”We have to seek together to be a missionary church — a church that builds bridges and dialogue, always ready to accept, like this great piazza with its arms,” he said from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. “We have to show our charity, presence and dialogue with love.”

And the many who prayed that whoever followed Francis would continue his progressive leadership have reason to be encouraged as Leo called on everyone to “keep the voice” of Francis in their hearts.

”Help us and all others to build bridges with dialogue … to be one common people living always in peace,” he said. “Thank you to Pope Francis.”

It was Francis who brought Leo to the Vatican in 2023 to head the church’s Dicastery for Bishops, tasked with overseeing the selection of new bishops. And with a clear nod to Francis’ concern for people living in poverty and the marginalized, Leo said: “We must be a church … that goes forward and which always seeks peace, charity and to be close to those who suffer.”

Likewise, from his first meeting with the faithful, it appears that the world is ready for an American pope. The crowd beneath the balcony — which naturally included many who were Italian and likely expected one of their countrymen to restore the papacy to their national legacy — embraced Leo for what he said and who he is, rather than rejecting him for where he’s from.

Who he is, according to a longtime friend and fellow Augustinian, is a holy man of many talents.

Father Robert Hagan works at Villanova University, the Catholic school outside Philadelphia where Leo earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977. He has known Leo for more than two decades, and he noted that the new pope has been a missionary, an administrator, a counselor, a teacher and a leader.

”I think this is a culmination of gifts and experience that now the world will be proud of and … can hold up as what we all aspire to be — to be the loving peacemakers, the promoters of freedom and justice that we’re all called to be,” Hagan told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “Hopefully, that will inspire people to do it where they find themselves in their particular walks of life.”

It was also compelling and heartwarming to hear Leo, who speaks multiple languages, depart briefly from Italian to deliver a message in Spanish in recognition of the people in Peru, where “a faithful people accompanied their bishop to share their faith with him.”

While Leo’s journey has taken him far from Chicago, there’s nothing wrong with Americans taking pride in him being raised in this country, as Hagan does.

”Pope Leo represents all that is good about being an American,” Hagan said. “To want to work for the freedom and the justice and the opportunity for all people, the core values upon which this country was founded. To … be an instrument, a promoter of all things good for the common good, for people on the margins, for the poor. These are values that Pope Leo has lived.”

Hours or even days into a new papacy, there’s no way to know what kind of pope Leo will be. It’s been said that many people, including a good number of Jesuits, were skeptical — if not outright discouraged — after Pope Francis stepped to the balcony’s railing on March 13, 2013.

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had a reputation from his days as a bishop and cardinal in Argentina as stern and authoritarian. But Francis distanced himself from that perception and became the people’s pope.

It seems that Leo, without such perceptions to overcome, has a clearer path in front of him. And we’re hopeful that it will be one the world can follow.

— San Antonio Express-News via TNS